Almost Normal

Chapter One

Based upon Stargate: Continuum

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Samantha Carter was frustrated. Well, that's not completely accurate. She was angry. Well, she was both. She slapped her hands against her steering wheel. She was angry because it was Jack O'Neill's birthday. It was Jack O'Neill's birthday and he was . . .

Well, she didn't know where he was. That was part of the problem.

Suddenly hyperaware of her radio and how much she hated this song, Sam punched one of her presets. Ugh! Another song she hated. She punched another preset, and another, and another. She went through all of them, finding nothing interesting. She stabbed the seek button. Nothing. Too fast, too slow, too rock, too pop, too country, too oldies, too contemporary, arg! Classical! Like she was in the mood for that!

Sam was once again reminded how much she hated listening to the radio when she was upset. She found herself fuming in silence a lot more frequently here than she did there. "There" being the timeline she came from. If she ever got her hands on Ba'al she was going to kill him, slowly.

Because here she was, on Jack's birthday, driving to the Flagstaff Community College where she worked as an associate math professor. She wasn't even Samantha Carter any more.

Flagstaff was okay, she supposed. Sure, the weather kind of sucked, but she had been accustomed to Colorado Springs and Washington, D.C. before that. And teaching university drop outs and last chance students college algebra and trigonometry wasn't exactly blowing up a sun.

Okay, that was unfair. Most of her students really were motivated to learn and were actually quite intelligent, despite some of their opinions of themselves. And she did like algebra, and teaching it to them.

But the fact was that it was her husband's birthday and not only was she not with him and couldn't contact him, but she had no idea where he was or what his new name was, assuming the Air Force didn't let him run around as a second Jack O'Neill.

Second Jack O'Neill. To say that she had been shocked to see a Colonel Jack O'Neill walk up to them on the ice shelf would be an understatement.

"Which one of you is the General?" Colonel O'Neill had barked, walking up to them and pulling down his balaclava.

Sam and her Jack also removed their face coverings, and everyone's mouth had dropped open.

"Well now who know what it feels like," Sam said, thinking about the number of 'herself' she'd met over the years.

Her Jack gave her a sarcastic smile. "What goes around comes around, I guess . . ."

"Who the hell are you two?" Colonel O'Neill asked, drawing the attention back to himself.

Her Jack raised his hand in preface. "This is gonna sound a little weird."

Colonel O'Neill waved his hands. "I don't think I want to hear it, especially not from you," he pointed sharply at her Jack, "Or you for that matter," he pointed at her too.

"You recognize her?" her Jack asked.

"Enough questions from you two. You're going to answer our questions about why the hell a copy of me and a dead astronaut are walking around an ice shelf!"

Sam was still focusing on the 'dead astronaut' comment when one of the men behind him waved and shouted something.

"Come on, our ride is here."

"Where?" she asked.

Colonel O'Neill turned around just in time for the ice to shatter and a submarine settle on the surface. Sam stared for a minute, shocked. That was kind of amazing, she'd never seen a submarine break ice before.

"Well, that's cool," her Jack muttered.

Bringing herself back to the present, Sam parked her car in faculty parking and headed towards her office, a short six minute walk with either an elevator or two flights of stairs. She usually took the stairs, if only to add some time to her daily routine. She made it to her office and plopped down in her desk chair, her mood having gone from angry to defeated.

She rubbed her fist over her sternum, over the pair of dog tags that hung there. She pulled them from her shirt and stared at them for a second. One had her own name (her real name), the other had Jack's.

"In order to prevent you from attempting to change the timeline, you will be separated and given new identities. Doctor Jackson, if you'll come with me. Colonel Carter with Staff Sergeant Brown, and General, please go with Airman Kingsley," the Technical Sergeant said.

"You're gonna give me two minutes with my wife," Jack had said.

"You know I can't do that, Sir."

Jack took one step towards him and repeated himself in a dark tone. "You are going to give me two minutes with my wife." It wasn't a request.

"Give them the room," Landry's voice came over the loud speakers. Every head in the room snapped to the mirror. She had known it was a one way mirror, they all knew, they weren't stupid. However, they hadn't expected Landry to be on the other side.

"Sir," the Tech Sergeant started to protest.

"Give them the room," Landry repeated.

Sam gave Daniel a quick hug, having no words. He gripped her tight. Jack put his hand on his shoulder. "Take care of the leg," he said.

Daniel forced a smile for them. "I guess in forty years, when we're all old, we can move into a little cabin on the beach and complain about the weather."

Despite herself, Sam laughed. The Tech Sergeant turned Daniel's wheelchair around took him from the room, followed by the two other airmen. No one said goodbye, unable to form the words.

When the door closed behind them, Jack pulled Sam to him, slinging his arms around her waist.

She put her arms around his neck.

"Listen, Sam, you're young enough to be happy here," he said. "So if you need to . . . If you need to find someone . . ."

Sam couldn't believe what she was hearing. Sure, they had only been married for three months, but, realistically, they had been monogamous for two years, ten if you didn't count the Pete and Kerri incidents. "Shut up," she whispered before tucking her head into his neck.

He shifted his grip and tightened his arms around her. After a few moments he brought this hands up and started to unhook her tags. He leaned back, pulling the chain that held her dog tags and her wedding ring from her shirt. "Then wear this, all the time."

She let him slip her ring on her finger before pulling him back to her and kissing him. She couldn't believe it was ending like this, stranded in an alternate timeline and forced to live the life of a stranger alone.

Sam leaned back again, and pulled his tags out. "Give me one of these," she said.

He replied with that look. That are-you-freaking-kidding-me look.

"I know it's sappy, just give me one." He smiled and obliged her. She traded one, so they each had a mismatched pair. "Now it'll always be real."

He kissed her forehead and then rested his cheek against it, holding her tight. "It'll always be real," he said quietly.

She pulled him down to her and kissed him slowly. He pulled back a little, leaving their lips close enough to brush together. "Our anniversary," he said, barely loud enough to hear. She opened her eyes and gazed at him. "The park where we gave Cassie her dog."

"Okay," she whispered against his lips, understanding.

"I love you," he said, not moving.

She smiled. He didn't say that much, he didn't need to, but she loved when he did. "I love you, too," she replied.

He kissed her again before tucking his face into her neck and holding her tight.

Sam remembered the scene with vivid detail. Even though they promised to meet again, she realized (as he probably did as well) that it was more than likely the Air Force would catch onto them before they were able to meet and put a stop to the whole thing before it happened. If that was so, she was sure that they both would try again the following year, and the year after that, until either they actually did it or the Air Force would admit defeat and cave. If they were caught the first time, she knew she would probably never see him again.

A small knock on the door of the isolation room let them know their time was almost up. He kissed her once more, slowly, taking the time to nibble on her lips a little, as if nothing was wrong. She gave him a small smile and squeezed his hands as the door opened. They both took a half step back, not in retreat, but to see who came into the room. It was the Staff Sergeant and the Airman. They kissed once more and were led out of the room, and led down different corridors.

She didn't look back.

Replaying it a thousand times in her mind, she wondered if she should have. Every time, she decided that no, it was good that the last she saw of him was his face, not his back walking away.

She looked at the calendar on the wall of her office. Six months down, two and a half to go. She could do this. She could make it. She hadn't cried yet, and she wasn't going to. She had cried for Cam, sure, but she hadn't cried because they took her life. They had taken everything from her, but she was still Samantha Carter, damnit! Well . . . kind of. She was still her, and they were never going to take that from her, no matter how hard they tried.

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Stay tuned for chapter two